Before I consider the purchase of two OLPC laptops, I would like to verify that the hardware will support booting Linux via USB flash devices. I know PuppyLinux was unfortunately quickly dismissed as a possible candidate to run on the OLPC hardware; however, since the AMD Geode is a x86 processor, I am in hopes I can boot PuppyLinux from USB attached devices, IE... USB Flash, Compact flash using USB adapter, hard drive/cdrom/dvdrom using sata/ide-to-USB adapter, etc.. Has anyone on the development team tried to boot any of the later PuppyOS releases on the current OLPC hardware? If so, how did it work?

Thanks Very Much In Advance Regards Ron

It can definitely boot from USB sticks; we do it all the time. It doesn't use a standard BIOS, so see the documentation for Open Firmware (Forth) about what files to put on the stick. Or download and poke at the Autoreinstallation image, which is booted from a USB stick.
The laptop has run Debian by using the OLPC kernel and kernel modules, and everything else from a standard Debian system. As far as I know, nobody has done the similar exercise with PuppyLinux. Most of the changes required for the hardware have been pushed upstream into the original packages. You may need to upgrade the X server in PuppyLinux as well as the kernel. It will definitely NOT work "out of the box". It will definitely work if you do some integration work. Go for it! -- gnu 19 Nov 2007

The OLPC fascinates me with its specification. Oh to read a laptop in bright sunlight!!! and with incredibly low-power usage.

The Human Computer Interface is something ground-breaking too; okay so it's intended for children, but conceptually the "journal metaphor/paradigm" it employs is neither age nor, I imagine, culturally restrictive.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=23800

HairyWill wrote:

The [Intel] classmate is a fairly standard hardware design that IMHO doesn't really break any new ground apart from cost.

The OLPC XO has driven some ground breaking features especially in the area of power conservation.
Low power display up to 1200x900 pixels, readable in bright sunlight
wireless mesh networking as standard
static display can be maintained with the CPU off (for use as an e-book)

Damn. I'm looking forward to my OLPC, but I sounds like It'll be a pain to get puppy on it. I sure as heck don't have the hacking skills myself. I'm also sure I won't be the only casual user who will be looking to upgrade their XO to something puppy-like. If anyone with some actual skills can figure it out and put together a How-To, I (and likely others) would be most grateful.

I'm not sure, from what I've read, I even understand Why Puppy won't just boot on the XO._________________I am running Buddapup 4.00 on an Itronix gobook 1 with an intel 85 processer and 256 MB ram, and an old desktop who's stats I completely don't know. In both cases I boot from CD at all times. I'm desperately trying to get this to work on an OLPC.

Damn. I'm looking forward to my OLPC, but I sounds like It'll be a pain to get puppy on it.

It may (or may not) be tricky, or different, but if it is possible, which it seems from some things I've read, that it is, then I'm pretty sure you won't be waiting too long before someone provides the recipe for installing Puppy on the OLPC.

If a thing is technically possible, and desired, and the right person gets a hold of the applicable machine, you can bet your boots it will happen. May take a while, but I'm sure the machine will be fantastic anyway.

Did not have time to read the thread you referenced in your post; however, Running PuppyOS from a USB stick should only use the internal RAM in the OLPC and not effect the internal hardware/software on subsequent boots with the Puppy USB stick not installed. This is how I run Puppy now on my Compaq Laptop. After I learn how to backup and restore the OLPC internal OS, Installing PuppyOS onto the internal NAND flash might be something to consider down the road. However, this would require more work as Puppy would need to handle wear leveling using a file system like jffs. Since the unit only has a 30 day warranty, I won't try anything radical until well after that.

Puppy would need to handle wear leveling using a file system like jffs.

There are lots of people (I think) already using puppy with solid state storage devices such as USB pen drives and IDE-Compact Flash adapters. The intel classmates that Barry has also use solid state storage.

When installed to compact flash or USB pen drive with sufficient RAM puppy only writes to storage once every 30 minutes thats less than 18,000 writes per year if you leave it on 24/7._________________Will
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The Universal Installer still won’t install to USB. I haven’t gotten around to that yet.

Remember: horse first, then cart._________________hangout: ##b0rked on irc.freenode.net
diversion:http://alienjeff.net - visit The Fringe
quote: "The foundation of authority is based upon the consent of the people." - Thomas Hooker

I'm using 3.01 but I think that my most functional version was 2.16
at some point after 2.14 the celery 400 in the corner with an ancient soundblaster card and isa nic stopped being so easy to setup and dropped its config on boot.

HairyWill, yes, I also think that v2.16.x was very good. As I have experienced difficulty using the latest Puppy with an older kernel, perhaps an alternative -- now, this is just speculation -- is that the 2.16 series could be continued, but updated with recent gtk libraries and apps, plus all the various script enhancements.

Continuing the speculative thought... if someone who uses 2.16.1 can compile gtk 2.12.x and then abiword, gnumeric, etc., I can contribute by backporting all the script enhancements. The 2.1x series uses an older gcc compiler and glibc that are very mature and rock solid. Plus of course the older kernel. We could put cups into it also.

Will try again at the weekend after I return from Prague. My better half receives her "Habil" there at Karls University.

Pity she's not a Prof. in Computer Science as well. Ah well, can't have everything I suppose!

Yes, it's not just the gtk package, there's a matching set of other packages -- probably if you go to gtk.org there are some instructions on what other packages are required and the order that they have to be compiled (plus compile instructions). Make sure you do
# ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --build=i486-t2-linux-gnu
as a minimum, maybe more config params required for each package.
Yes, I do recall getting compile instructions from gtk.org or somewhere linked from there.

Another good thing to do is look on t2-project.org, at the "package matrix" -- they often have a patch for a package that can avoid compile and usage problems.

Guys, I took the liberty of setting up a new project thread about 2.16.1 (puppyluv) here:
"in-progress: PuppyLuv (2.16.1) updated with current features"
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=23990_________________Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? Get the sfs (English only).

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